Things to do...

You know, you expect your life to become a bit more complicated when you add another child, but you don't really realize JUST how complicated until the second child is a reality. Now that Kyra is a living, breathing, eating, crying, peeing, pooping reality I am slowly beginning to understand that having just one child - even a high-energy 3.5 year old boy - was so darn easy. I'm very lucky that Dave is here for 3 weeks - he can take Blaine and do the grocery shopping, errands etc. while I stay home with Kyra. But once he leaves and heads back to Georgia, I will have at least 3 more weeks of solo parenting of 2 kids before I rejoin Dave in Tbilisi.

So, I'm currently trying to make lists of things I want to do before Dave leaves. I need to do some shopping for clothes for the kids and for myself. Clothing in Tbilisi is expensive so it's better (and lots cheaper if you hit a really good sale - such as the 98 cent onsies I snagged at Old Navy the other day) to do it in the states and then ship to Georgia. I need to start packing stuff up that we have accumulated and ship it back to Georgia. I need to find and purchase a train table for Blaine for his birthday in June. Then I need to pray that I can convince the movers that a train table is a "consumable" and have them include it in my consumable shipment - ditto for the exersaucer I want to purchase for Kyra. Not to mention all of the consumables I need to buy. Dave and I have a trip to Costco in our future. I have to think about how many boxes of diapers I am going to need and in what sizes. How do I judge how quickly Kyra is going to grow? Currently she is still in newborn, but I'm getting ready to switch her to size 1 because of her chunky thighs. I need new shoes. I need, I need, I need. But it's hard to shop with an infant - she's only 8 days old for goodness sakes. My body is not back in any sort of shape for clothes shopping. I can't leave Kyra behind and go hit the stores solo because I am nursing her and if I'm not around, she can't eat. Which would be bad.

But even with all of this, I can't imagine a better, more incredible, more wonderful thing than my family. I have a fabulous husband, an adorable, smart, funny, and loving son and a tiny, sweet baby girl. I am the luckiest woman in the world.

A short update

My computer died a few weeks ago and I just now got it back from the repair shop. During my downtime, I was reduced to checking my email via computers at Kinkos with my 3 year old in tow. Not exactly an ideal situation when it comes to updating the blog, so it was necessary to neglect updates until now.

So, what has happened in the last 2 weeks? Well, David arrived safely from Georgia. Blaine and I were overjoyed to see him and it's nice to have him with us even if it is only 3 weeks.

Oh, and I had a baby. Less than 48 hours after David got here, we added Kyra Eleanor to our family. She was born Monday night, weighed a dainty 8 pounds, 12 ounces (compared to her brother's 10 pounds at birth) and was 21.5 inches long. She has a full head of hair and is just as precious as can be. We are all head over heels in love with her - even her big brother thinks she is "cool".

Happy New Year - Updates from Florida

I haven't been in the mood to write much recently. I also haven't had a ton of time. Being on my own with a 3.5 year old is a challenge - trying to find things to occupy him without resorting to excessive amounts of television is hard. Especially if you add in the fact that I am at the waddling, lumbering, please-God-don't-make-me-have-to-chase-him stage of pregnancy. We spend a good deal of time at the small playground here at the apartment complex, or at the indoor mall play areas. Oh, and at Chuck E. Cheese. I have always hated Chuck E. Cheese, but this one was recently remodeled, so it doesn't seem as nasty as others I have been in. Besides, I can sit and he can climb up in the tunnels and go down the slide and run around and burn off steam. Bonus!

I have been very lucky that good friends (Heidi, Karen, Julie) have been willing to watch Blaine for me during doctor's appointments and also once to get a hair cut. Who knew getting a hair cut could seem like a luxury? My mom and dad also came down this weekend so I got a chance to go browse at the library for an hour or so, go grocery shopping without hearing "Blaine wants that!" and I also had planned on getting a pedicure. The pedicure plans fell through due to the overwhelming STINK in the nail salon. I guess everyone was getting acrylics and I just could not take the smell, it gave me a headache. I will have to find another place, preferable with better ventilation.

David will be here in less than 2 weeks! I'm very excited to see him again, but I don't think my excitement will even come close to Blaine's. Blaine "calls" his dad every day on the phone, just to chat. He misses him very much, but overall he is dealing with the separation well. He seems very excited about the new baby, proudly showing off her carseat and travel crib to everyone who comes to visit "Come look! This is baby sister's bed! It's pink. Blaine's too big for it, but it's just right for baby sister!" I hope his excitement and fascination continue after she is a permanent, crying, laughing, cooing, smiling addition to our lives. I think it will. As he says all the time "Blaine LOVES babies!"

My due date is 3 weeks from now. Everything is going well this pregnancy. At this point with Blaine I was starting to measure really big, my blood pressure started going up and my feet, by the end of the day, looked like sausages. This time I'm measuring big, but within the normal margin of error, my blood pressure is still fantastic, and I have little to no swelling. Baby is moving good, heartbeat sounds great (according to Blaine, it sounds like a choo choo train "BOOM BOOM" and is "really cool" or so he told my midwife at my last office visit). I'm uncomfortable, but that's to be expected at this stage. I've had discussions with the baby and have told her that she has to wait until her dad gets here, but as soon as his plane lands, she should feel free to give me a swift kick and break her water so we can get that whole labor thing started. We'll just have to wait and see if she is paying attention.

Oh, and we still don't have a name for the baby yet - which you might have picked up on reading this as I refer to her as "the baby" or "baby sister" throughout. We are settled on a middle name, but the first name is a real challenge. We have 2 or 3 possibilities, but nothing has been decided and probably won't be until she is born. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, heh.